Mourners Cherish Memories of Monsignor John Caulfield as Parish Bids Him Farewell

Thursday

Nov 7, 2013 at 8:25 PM

Arms crossed, gaze serious, a young John Caulfield wore the barest trace of a smile outside an Ireland seminary. The robe and collar already suited him in the photo that someone had snapped.

By MATTHEW PLEASANTTHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | Arms crossed, gaze serious, a young John Caulfield wore the barest trace of a smile outside an Ireland seminary. The robe and collar already suited him in the photo that someone had snapped.A lifetime later, after Caulfield's work brought him to Florida where he led St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Lakeland for 27 years, the black and white image greeted mourners Thursday morning as they packed the church.Caulfield's casket stood open as they took their seats. Bagpipes swelled. The congregation prayed."Our Father who art in heaven..."Friends in and out of the clergy gathered to remember the Caulfield they knew before his death Sunday from lung cancer. Before retiring in 2012, he often eschewed the pulpit to walk the aisles of pews instead.His tenderness could soothe a lone parishioner or comfort an entire room of them, friends recalled. He spent his time at the bedsides of the sick and in the classrooms of St. Joseph's Academy.One speaker at the funeral Mass recalled a note he found from a mourner: "When I was a little girl, I always thought God and Santa Claus would be just like Father Caulfield."Born in 1935, Caulfield grew up on his family's farm in County Galway in west Ireland. Back then, success meant pursuing opportunities off the island. After Caulfield graduated from St. Peter's College in Wexford, Ireland, he was ordained in May 1959. Two months later he traveled to Florida and became an associate pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in Orlando.After the Diocese of Orlando formed in 1968, he served several different parishes before being appointed pastor of St. Joseph Parish's in Lakeland in 1984."He walked with so many people, as he put it to me," his brother, Joseph Caulfield, told the congregation.Before the official tributes, people leaned together in the pews, exchanging their own eulogies. Greg Willard, who found a spot in the back of the crowded room, remembered Caulfield's competitive streak in golf, racquetball and sometimes arm wrestling. Sunday mornings, Caulfield slipped off his collar and drank coffee with a group of veterans.Willard hinted at the Caulfield behind the collar, settling for one word: "Earthy."Caulfield accepted the honorary title monsignor with a small group of priests in 2008 from Pope Benedict XVI. But he didn't always want to hear you use it."He doesn't like to be the star," said Matt Caulfield, 65, his youngest brother, standing outside St. Joseph's as the hearse pulled away. "He liked to work, to do his duties quietly."After John Caulfield left home, he shared his experiences in the United States with siblings."I was infatuated," his brother said of the stories.Caulfield's casket had arrived Wednesday at the church, where fellow members of the Knights of Columbus kept guard overnight. This weekend it will travel back across the Atlantic.By Sunday, he'll be back in Ireland.

[ Matthew Pleasant can be reached at matthew.pleasant@theledger.com or 863-802-7590. ]